The Flannel Never Died For Kandi Coded

What would have happened if grunge never stopped being relevant? It's a question that the rather poorly named Kandi Coded answers rather resoundingly with their new album Fell For The Gift.Produced by Jack Endino everything about this record sounds like the early 90's and whether or not that's a good thing is totally up to you.

In my eyes, the problem with Fell For The Gift, is that it doesn't sound nearly as good as anything that was originally released in 91 or 92. You see, soon after Nirvana broke and became bigger that sliced bread the majors went on a signing rampage and pretty much enslaved any band that sounded remotely like the mighty N. That's where Kandi Coded comes in. This is a band that sounds something like the third or fourth wave of grunge, in the sense that something got lost in the translation. Much like the bands of the time, Fell For The Gift isn't so bad, but it's nothing out of the ordinary and that's it's biggest draw back.

Despite having one of the worst names ever, the band almost sound like they didn't study the whole grunge thing long enough. The songs are loud, punky, rough and raw, but they just don't have the same stickiness that most of the Sub Pop bands had. Don't get me wrong, Fell For The Gift has it's moments and they bring in some cool rock and roll influences along the way, but as someone who had to search hi and low for a copy of Bleach in 1991 because no one carried Sub Pop back then I'm kind of critical of the genre.

So, Fell For The Gift isn't like listening to a proper grunge revival album, but rather like a record from the waning days of grunge. It's the sort of thing where the edges are frayed and the songs just aren't quite on target. It's Ok, but nothing spectacular. If you absolutely miss the days of Singlesand Mudhoney, you might like this quite a bit. But it's truly for severe afficianado's only.